The following is a letter I wrote and sent to Secretary Robert McDonald of the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs. I wanted to bring to his attention the indefensible treatment my brother received at the hands of the VA medical system. Three days after my letter was received at the VA offices my brother passed. He was 55 years old. The family had an independent autopsy done to document the damage done due to the multiple failures in his treatment. The deputy coroner has reported that no cause of death could be determined because there were so many things wrong that could have caused his death. We are still awaiting the pathologist’s report. (A warning beforehand – there are two graphic pictures in my letter).
As I mention in the letter, it is too late to do anything for my brother. But it is not too late remedy these issues for the other veterans in Indiana and indeed for those in the rest of the country. I want to get this story as much visibility as possible and I hope others who have experienced this heartache will do the same. I know Secretary McDonald is there to change the VA, that some changes have been made, and that change doesn’t come overnight. But pressure needs to be kept up to keep things moving and keep them on track. If we are so woefully unprepared to deal with our older veterans, still not dealing with the damage inflicted on our Vietnam veterans, then how are we ever to help those coming back from the Middle East with trauma and injuries unlike those we ever imagined or dealt with before?
Whether or not we have a veteran in our family or know one, and whether or not we support this or that war or none at all, it’s our tax dollars that are funding them and sending young men and women off in harm’s way. That makes us responsible to see that they get the help they need when they return. We all need to take action.
Dear Mr. Secretary,
I am writing to bring to your attention my concerns about the treatment of a veteran in northern Indiana, my brother […]. I do not live nearby and am not involved in his daily care so what I know comes through conversations with my family. I therefore do not have the full story. But what I do know for certain is that this is a serious issue that has been going on for some time and despite somewhat recent promises of change, serious lapses in care continue to occur and my brother is not expected to live much longer. There is little at this point you may be able to do for him, but I bring it to your attention because his treatment has been outrageous – no one should be treated in such a careless, inhumane manner, and it points to the need for serious investigation into the operations of the VA health facilities in northern Indiana (Fort Wayne and Indianapolis, in particular).
My brother was exposed to the contaminated water at Camp Lejeune. We believe as a result of this he developed Hep C which in turn, because it was untreated due to the negligence of his VA doctor, turned into cirrhosis and then to liver cancer. He also has diabetes and lung cancer. His VA doctor made it very clear that she did not like him. Truth be told, the feeling was mutual, but that should not have prevented her from hearing his complaints, evaluating his symptoms, and getting him appropriate treatment. This went on for years before his health deteriorated so badly it became obvious that medical intervention was urgently needed. As I understand it his doctor’s behaviour toward him has been noted and he was finally “allowed” to see another doctor. And now, because of the seriousness of his condition he is able to see a local doctor. Rather than do an entire medical history, let me outline just a few things from the past year.
January 2014
He was hospitalized and told he needed a liver transplant but wouldn’t qualify due to the Hep C. During this stay the doctors yelled at him for not disclosing he had lung cancer and started treating him for it while telling him it was inoperable and that he had only a few days to live. It turned out they were using someone else’s x-rays.
He was diagnosed with liver cancer and given medication the pharmacist told him you have to be pretty bad to be taking.
March 2014
He ran out of pain meds and the VA admitted him, then sent him to Lutheran Hospital where he was also diagnosed (for real this time) with lung cancer. It was an inch-by-inch spot behind his heart which is partly why it had been missed previously. During this time he received a visit from “two big-wigs from the VA” and he thought things might change now he had gotten their attention to the fact that he was not treated for his Hep C (when it is known to cause liver cancer) and then that his liver cancer wasn’t discovered until it hit end stage.
May 2014
Had surgery to remove the main tumor. A second smaller tumor could not be found but “it wasn’t expected to grow any faster than the one on his lung so they weren’t too worried about it.”
By the end of May his lower extremities were extremely swollen and he was seeping out the entire length of the abdominal cut from the surgery at the beginning of the month. He was told the tumor that was removed trebled in 3 weeks and it was expected the one they left behind was likely that size as well. There was a new, unknown growth that looked like a grapefruit under his skin.
The VA was supposed to overnight him some bandages for changing his dressing but they did not arrive as expected. Instead he was left using a paper towel and a bandana on the wound. While my sister visited with him in 30 minutes time the chair he was sitting in was soaked and he had to go change.
November 2014
Another brother, his main caretaker, texted my sister that […] is “not well, in bed 23 hrs a day lot of pain have you seen his stomach???” He then sent the following photos:
My sister and I thought those were tumors – they are not. The one on top is his stomach and the one on bottom is his large intestine. During the surgery they tied up his organs so that the doctor could collect the drainage from a bag attached to his chest. But the procedure failed internally, it stopped draining into the bag, and the bag fell off. He now has to have the fluid aspirated with a needle – a very painful procedure. He was told to get in touch with the surgical team in Indianapolis that did the surgery within 24 hours if the procedure failed. He was told they have to go through the local VA (Fort Wayne, I believe) to contact them. They did but they have heard nothing back in more than a month. The doctor who is doing the draining is at a local hospital but he is not authorized to do anything but that task.
December 2014
We were told that when the extraction gets to 12 pints he would be near the end. A week or so ago when he went in for the second extraction in four days they took 15 pints. During this period he was also told he couldn’t get his meds refilled because his chart requires a drug test before they will refill his prescriptions.
I think this brief overview clearly shows a number of ways the VA has failed my brother. Denying medical care by refusing to hear a patient’s complaints, refusing to schedule tests, treatment based on the wrong medical records, delayed response in providing necessary medical devices, failure to follow up, requiring a dying patient to undergo drug testing prior to having pain medication refilled – these are seriously unconscionable, inhumane ways to treat anyone. And while it’s wonderful that veterans are being allowed to see local doctors, to tie those doctors’ hands so that they must rely on the VA for approval to do anything outside a narrowly defined treatment plan and then for the VA to delay response or fail to respond to urgent requests for additional care is simply inexcusable.
I might be willing to think this was a one-off situation if it weren’t for the fact that our Mother, a World War II veteran, passed away just a year ago while playing the waiting game with the VA. But while I’d love to voice my pain at what we feel was her needless death, I want to remain on point with the issue of my brother’s treatment. As I said previously, I don’t think there is anything you can do for him now. He is sleeping 23 hours a day, has little strength, is losing coherence, and has passed the boundaries his doctor says define “the end”. But for the other veterans in Indiana, please look into these sites so that no other veteran and their family has to suffer this way.
I hope you are serious about your commitment to improving the VA – our veterans deserve so much better than they are receiving. As others have suggested, I urge you to involve veterans themselves in overhauling the system. They know what they need. Many of them could also use the employment.
Very Sincerely,
beastiemomblog 